I liked reality t.v programmes but a couple of instances of the weekend made me think about the negatives of it. Saturday I tuned in to watch the opening show of X-Factor and was sat giggling with my mate at the eager hopefuls. Towards the end of the programme a girl of about 21 stepped up, a home made cape adorned her neck with well wishing messages scrawled on it from friends and family, as she stepped into the fray to meet the judges of fate her family clasped their hands in hope for her. Needless to say she wasn’t up to the grade and was given thumbs down by all three judges. As she retreated in floods of tears her partner, mother and some other family member promptly confronted the judges, dropped to their knees and begged to the judges. I found this unsettling, my laughter starkly turning to mild shock at what I was viewing, the lengths people are willing to go to in order to get noticed or get their way. When begging didn’t help her family became surly and insulting as to the judges prowess but I couldn’t help musing what would have been said had Simon Cowell, Sharon Osbourne and Louis Walsh approved her. In my opinion they were right, she wasn’t good but the episode left a bad taste in my mouth regarding human traits and nature.
Second thing I want to mention is the Big Bro follow up programme that was on last night. The ‘fly on the wall’ show followed the housemates and their lives post Big Bro. The main thing that made me cringe was watching the contestants pursue their dreams back in the real world. Mary auditioned to be an aspiring actress, she didn’t impress, Science wanted to become a rapper but despite his enthusiasm nobody had seemingly snapped him up, recording moguls just offered encouragement. Lesley tried her hand at singing, submitted a tape of her work but was politely turned down and most of the others had different mad-cap ideas about how famous they’d become. Sure, all of them have gone on to do magazine shoots, nightclub appearances and cinema openings and make some money but as I predicted, Eugene was the only housemate to keep his feet squarely on the ground as he made various radio appearances, radio being his hobby anyway. Eugene didn’t seem star struck at all, neither was their any delusions of grandeur, just a look of surprise when he realised his winnings were in the bank. Anthony (the winner) seemed fairly level headed too, which I didn’t expect, he remarked the fame would be good while it lasted but he was back to his job dancing with a disco troupe. The point I think I want to make is how a spell behind a camera inflates the ego to massive proportions, people with no talent suddenly think they have purely down to the fact they’ve been on t.v, when most of them realise its back to reality and then money, public appearances and five minutes of fame ends – how will they think? Will their ego’s still be as big? Will they be resentful and despondent and blame everyone but themselves? I doubt I’ll find out but it would be interesting to see how many of them end up in therapy or desperately cling to a paparazzi camera at every ‘out and about in London’ opportunity.
Second thing I want to mention is the Big Bro follow up programme that was on last night. The ‘fly on the wall’ show followed the housemates and their lives post Big Bro. The main thing that made me cringe was watching the contestants pursue their dreams back in the real world. Mary auditioned to be an aspiring actress, she didn’t impress, Science wanted to become a rapper but despite his enthusiasm nobody had seemingly snapped him up, recording moguls just offered encouragement. Lesley tried her hand at singing, submitted a tape of her work but was politely turned down and most of the others had different mad-cap ideas about how famous they’d become. Sure, all of them have gone on to do magazine shoots, nightclub appearances and cinema openings and make some money but as I predicted, Eugene was the only housemate to keep his feet squarely on the ground as he made various radio appearances, radio being his hobby anyway. Eugene didn’t seem star struck at all, neither was their any delusions of grandeur, just a look of surprise when he realised his winnings were in the bank. Anthony (the winner) seemed fairly level headed too, which I didn’t expect, he remarked the fame would be good while it lasted but he was back to his job dancing with a disco troupe. The point I think I want to make is how a spell behind a camera inflates the ego to massive proportions, people with no talent suddenly think they have purely down to the fact they’ve been on t.v, when most of them realise its back to reality and then money, public appearances and five minutes of fame ends – how will they think? Will their ego’s still be as big? Will they be resentful and despondent and blame everyone but themselves? I doubt I’ll find out but it would be interesting to see how many of them end up in therapy or desperately cling to a paparazzi camera at every ‘out and about in London’ opportunity.
3 comments:
as you know i am not a reality tv fan - having watched less than 5 minutes of all the shows on all the stations combined (and then only by mistake....)
but surely some of this incidents of people begging / crying etc are just orchestrated?
and you have to wonder about any of the people who go on them.
perhaps one year i will go on as the sweary hairy one.
i realised today why you like crazy frog.
you and he are twins.
scary but true.
Pat, I've recently been sent a link to a photo that really looks like you, I may publish it on here!
Thanks go to Cliff for the link.
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